Barnton Parish Council is on the move to a new home

Parish council meetings are currently held at Barnton Pentecostal Church in Blackcroft Avenue, where council clerk Phillip Evoy has an office.

Rosebank School is a specialist primary school for children with autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and social and communication difficulties, and the council is due to move to the school towards the end of April.

Parish clerk Phillip Evoy said the council would be using a building at the school, and the facilities would include a meeting room, offices, kitchenette and toilets.

He said the location at the school would be more central than the current base at the church, and would be near Barnton Library, which he is hoping to increase links with.

Mr Evoy told parish councillors at the meeting where the move was agreed on that the parish council offered a two-hour Wednesday morning surgery, but only two people had turned up.

Rosebank School is also near Barnton Community Primary School, Barnton Cricket Club and Barnton Memorial Hall.

The council is to introduce a £40 reservation fee for pre-purchasing a grave at the Hayes Drive cemetery.

The fee is to come into force in April after parish councillors supported Cllr Judith Hughes’ suggestion of a £40 figure.

The £40 fee is also for cremated remains graves, and the council has agreed to keep the other cemetery fees at current levels.

The council is to carry out a general tidying up of the cemetery chapel to make it more inviting.

Cemetery clerk Susan Crank uses the brick-built building when she attends funerals, and meets the officiating minister and undertaker to carry out administrative duties.

Cllr Sheena Beech said the chapel needed to be more user-friendly, and was among a group of councillors who visited the building to look at how it could be improved internally.

The council has also agreed to keep the allotment fees at the current level of £55 a year, and is to look at replacing the Tunnel Top and web editor’s laptop and updating its software.